Active citizenship pays off: European cooperation on a recognition system for volunteering and active young people

With the project „Active citizenship pays off: European cooperation on a recognition system for volunteering and active young people” the project partners aha – Jugendinforma¬tions¬zentrum Vorarlberg/Austria, Young Scot/Scotland and Amt der Vorarlberger Landesregierung – Büro für Zukunftsfragen/Austria aimed at promoting and recognizing volunteering activities among young people. During the project period (1/1/2016 – 30/6/2018) the partners shared experience and expertise on voluntary engagement and developed “aha plus”, a recognition scheme for Vorarlberg: With “aha plus”, young people between 12 and 24 in Vorarlberg have the opportunity to get active in voluntary activities (“Quests”) offered by associations or other organisations, collect “Points” for the activities and exchange them for meaningful products or special experience (“Rewards”). As part of the project the basic structure of a “Social CV” was developed which lists the experience collected doing the activities and which should subsequently be of help to young people with job applications. Two results of the projects are the aha plus website www.ahaplus.at and a manual which documents the process of development and the functionalities of the two recognition schemes in Vorarlberg and Scotland. The project results were disseminated locally in numerous workshops with young people and associations, nationally with organisation in the youth information field and on a European level at a conference with youth card organisations.